모리슨의 『고향』

Homecoming and the Korean War in Toni Morrison's Home

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the political and aesthetic aspects of the narrative strategy adopted by Toni Morrison in her 10th novel, Home. In Home, Morrison synchronizes two researches for the hidden facts of racism in the United States and the Korean War, the so-called "Forgotten War" in the 1950s. First, I attempt to examine her politically motivated refutation of 'home' and continuing racial discrimination against African Americans. Focusing on the lives of Frank Money's family as the representative of the diasporic history, I investigate Morrison's topic, 'what is home to African American?' Second, I try to figure out Morrison's strategic allusions to Greek classical convention and tradition noticing Frank's quest for home as a surviving veteran like Odysseus in Odyssey. With contrapuntal reading of Home and Odyssey, I find that Morrison's Home is the allegory of Odysseus's homecoming. Third, I investigate what difference is between Morrison's Korean War novel and male writers' war narratives to locate her novel in the genealogy of war literature. Home is another requiem of Morrison for the victims of racism and the casualties of the Korean War.